My Junior Brother is a Hidden Boss

Chapter 21: You Win This Round

The young man sauntered over.

The naked provocation in his eyes was completely undisguised.

Ning Yuxin furrowed her brow. Initially, she assumed this was one of Lu Changsheng’s personal enemies arriving to settle a grudge.

Yet, as she scrutinized the young man’s face, she drew a blank.

She had never seen this person before in her life. Aside from Shi Feng, Lu Changsheng had virtually no enemies; since arriving at Qingyun Peak, he hadn’t even stepped foot outside the Cangyun Sect’s territory.

Sensing her measuring gaze, the sneer on the young man’s lips deepened into an arrogant smirk.

“Fellow Daoist, there is an order of first come, first served. Do you not understand the rules of commerce?” Lu Changsheng stated flatly.

The young man let out a light, mocking chuckle. “Treasures belong to the highest bidder. What, are your pockets too light?”

“You are remarkably arrogant.”

Lu Changsheng was genuinely perplexed by the hostility.

The youth cast a brief glance over his shoulder. Lu Changsheng discreetly extended his Divine Sense, immediately picking up the anomaly. Hovering in the distance were an elderly woman and another young man in his late twenties, acting as vanguards.

Several lesser disciples flanked them like an honor guard.

The elderly woman radiated the suffocating aura of the eighth layer of Core Formation, while the older youth stood at the absolute peak of the ninth layer of Essence Condensation. This was an undeniably elite entourage.

Dropping all pretense, the arrogant youth spoke directly. “Lu Changsheng, I know you play the local tyrant, hiding behind the skirts of the Cangyun Sect and Zhou Qingyu’s reputation. You think no one in this backwater dares to provoke you!”

“So, you took it upon yourself to provoke me?”

“Exactly!”

The exchange was entirely devoid of diplomatic pleasantries.

“What is your actual objective?” Lu Changsheng asked, cutting to the chase.

The youth sneered. “Nothing complicated. I simply wish to slap the Cangyun Sect across the face. Aren’t you Zhou Qingyu’s precious Junior Brother? Stepping on you is the perfect way to crush his insufferable arrogance!”

To act this brazenly within the Cangyun Sect’s own jurisdiction?

Even Ning Yuxin was completely baffled by the sheer audacity.

The youth spread his arms grandly, adding, “Oh, I almost forgot to mention. I hail from the Divine Thunder Sect!”

As his declaration echoed through the shop, he looked down his nose at Lu Changsheng with suffocating superiority.

Lu Changsheng’s gaze swept over the youth, a flicker of genuine surprise registering in his eyes.

The Divine Thunder Sect was an absolute behemoth headquartered far beyond the borders of the Yue Kingdom. It was an impossibly ancient lineage, an orthodox titan with tens of thousands of years of terrifying heritage.

It held absolute dominion over thirty-six sovereign kingdoms—Yue included—and reigned supreme over one hundred and eight vassal sects, occupying a sprawling, boundless territory.

The Nascent Soul grandmasters, worshipped as untouchable ancestors within the Yue Kingdom, were merely standard-issue executives within the Divine Thunder Sect.

Despite the heavy resume, Lu Changsheng’s expression didn’t even ripple. He merely stated indifferently, “So what if you belong to the Divine Thunder Sect? Do you honestly dare to casually murder me in broad daylight?”

It was an ironclad law of the Divine Thunder Sect: the strong were strictly forbidden from massacring the weak without just cause. Unless he actively initiated a lethal conflict, executing him would incur severe disciplinary backlash from their own internal affairs.

“You certainly know your legal loopholes!” the young man barked a laugh. “Since you understand the hierarchy, swallow your pride and endure it. Don’t drag your entire Sect into an early grave over a bruised ego. This spirit medicine belongs to me!”

Lu Changsheng mentally rolled his eyes. The guy is desperately trying to bait my aggro. But honestly, what is the ROI on pissing me off?

Who in their right mind wastes time griefing a low-level NPC disciple like me?

The ultimate objective is definitely Zhou Qingyu. I’m just getting caught in the crossfire because I’m on his friends list.

Still, their end game is completely opaque.

Lu Changsheng shot him a sideways glance. “The transaction hasn’t cleared yet. I bid three thousand Spirit Stones!”

Hmm?

The arrogant youth frowned, visibly caught off guard by the sheer defiance.

“Are you seriously attempting to compete with me in financial capital?”

Across all thirty-six kingdoms, even sovereign monarchs bowed their heads to him. Yet this backwater trash actually dared to initiate a bidding war!

Lu Changsheng couldn’t be bothered to exchange further trash talk. His risk assessment was already complete. He was only holding back now to avoid a messy corporate incident on Sect grounds. The moment these idiots stepped out of Cangyun jurisdiction, he was going to liquidate them.

He might prefer a low-profile, risk-averse playstyle safely hidden within the Sect, but he absolutely wasn’t some soft persimmon to be casually squeezed by arrogant heirs.

Furthermore, a bidding war? Did this clown fail to run a background check on my current venture capitalist?

He might be a core disciple of a megacorporation, but there’s no way he has more liquid cash than the daughter of Cangzhou’s wealthiest tycoon.

“Heh, since you want to play high stakes, I’ll humor you. Four thousand!”

The youth shouted the bid. Before he could even construct a smug expression, Lu Changsheng locked eyes with the shopkeeper, a faint, razor-thin smile curving his lips.

“Six thousand.”

“Seven thousand!”

“Eight thousand.”

Lu Changsheng casually bumped the price again, his expression as placid as an ancient well.

However, the Divine Thunder Sect disciple finally displayed a crack of hesitation.

Eight thousand Spirit Stones was a massive chunk of capital. Yet, having escalated the conflict to this degree, folding now meant losing catastrophic amounts of face.

He couldn’t stop himself from throwing a nervous glance at his elite escorts hovering outside. Gritting his teeth, he barked, “Nine thousand!”

“Ten thousand.”

From beginning to end, Lu Changsheng hadn’t hesitated for a microsecond.

He was the one who established the ‘highest bidder wins’ rule. If I lose, I just walk away, but the one taking the massive PR hit is him.

But a single stalk of Crimson Spirit Grass had a hard market cap of twelve hundred Spirit Stones. The current bid was approaching a ten-times markup.

Is he actually that desperate for this herb? Or is this purely an ego trip?

Just as the arrogant youth wavered.

Ning Yuxin watched the escalating warfare with wide eyes. She possessed enough market knowledge to know the herb was vastly overpriced. But since Lu Changsheng clearly required it, and ten thousand Spirit Stones was merely a drop in her financial ocean, she was fully prepared to cover the invoice.

He had guided her Sword Dao flawlessly. She considered this a simple tip for premium service.

At that exact millisecond, Lu Changsheng whipped his head toward Ning Yuxin, a thread of highly condensed Spiritual Qi delivering a voice transmission directly into her ear.

“Junior Sister, we absolutely must secure this herb. That is no ordinary Crimson Spirit Grass; it is the legendary Crimson Phoenix Grass! The Ancestral Elder personally dispatched me to acquire it. The shopkeeper’s appraisal failed, and this arrogant fool hasn’t realized its true identity either. Its market value is literally unquantifiable! Authorize the funds, quickly!”

Lu Changsheng’s voice echoed with desperate urgency.

Ning Yuxin froze. She had read about the mythical Crimson Phoenix Grass in ancient texts but had never seen a live specimen.

Furthermore, when did the Ancestral Elder ever issue him a direct procurement order? Hadn’t they just stumbled into this shop by pure coincidence?

Despite the glaring logical inconsistencies, her absolute trust in him kept her mouth shut. She simply nodded earnestly, her eyes shining with dramatic tension.

Meanwhile, a feral grin split the young man’s face. His Spiritual Sense had easily intercepted the “secret” transmission. He immediately re-evaluated the red herb. Swept up in the psychological manipulation, his biased senses genuinely convinced him he detected a profound, hidden resonance. He was absolutely ecstatic.

Timing it perfectly, Lu Changsheng feigned a sigh of relief. “Fellow Daoist, since your funds have dried up, this Spirit Grass belongs to me. Shopkeeper—”

“Hold it right there! I bid twelve thousand!”

“What?!”

The shopkeeper practically suffered a heart attack. Lu Changsheng deliberately contorted his face into a mask of panicked rage.

“Heh, it seems your little procurement mission is going to fail!” the youth mocked, drunk on his own perceived brilliance.

“Fifteen thousand!”

Lu Changsheng’s expression grew fiercely severe, completely shedding his previous calm facade.

“Eighteen thousand!”

The young man ruthlessly countered. The shopkeeper was completely paralyzed, his brain failing to process the numbers.

He never, in his wildest dreams, imagined a thousand-stone weed would fetch eighteen thousand!

Under the suffocating tension of the room, Lu Changsheng gritted his teeth audibly. “Twenty thousand!”

“Twenty-two thousand!”

The youth slammed down his final bid, the smug provocation in his eyes reaching absolute maximum density.

Lu Changsheng’s face drained of all color, turning a horrifying shade of defeated grey. A long, suffocating silence gripped the shop. He stared at the medicinal herb in its display box, his eyes swimming with agonizing, bitter reluctance.

Just as Ning Yuxin stepped forward, fully prepared to authorize a higher transfer, the youth laughed cruelly. “What’s the matter? Reached your credit limit? I suppose it makes sense. Your pathetic Cangyun Sect barely grosses thirty thousand Spirit Stones annually. Twenty-two thousand is an astronomical price for a beggar like you!”

Lu Changsheng slowly raised his head, glaring at his tormentor.

Arrogant young masters were naturally addicted to flexing their dominance. Having achieved total victory, the youth couldn’t resist twisting the knife. “Did you honestly believe your pathetic voice transmission could bypass my Spiritual Sense? You are barely at the fourth layer of Spirit Accumulation! You are nothing! Hah!”

Lu Changsheng’s face contorted further, his fists trembling uncontrollably as if he had just suffered the most devastating humiliation of his entire life.

Drinking in his opponent’s utter despair, the young man practically vibrated with smug satisfaction.

“You… you are absolutely despicable! You win this round! We’re leaving!”

Having “lost” the ultimate prize, Lu Changsheng spun on his heel, grabbed Ning Yuxin’s sleeve, and stormed out of the apothecary in a blind fury. Internally, he was laughing so hard he was practically doing backflips over the two-thousand percent scam he just pulled off.

“Heh! What absolute trash. To think he dared to compete with me!”

The Divine Thunder Sect disciple sneered disdainfully, his eyes filled with nothing but supreme, victorious contempt.

…